Single-payer health care

Single-payer healthcare is a system in which the state, rather than private insurers, pays for all healthcare costs. Single-payer systems may contract for healthcare services from private organizations (as is the case in Canada) or may own and employ healthcare resources and personnel (as is the case in the United Kingdom).

The term "single-payer" thus describes the funding mechanism, referring to healthcare financed by a single public body from a single fund, not the type of delivery or for whom physicians work. The British system is technically not single payer, as it consists of a number of financially and legally autonomous trusts and private health insurance options are also allowed. Only Canada and Taiwan have true single-payer systems.

The actual funding of a "single payer" system comes from all or a portion of the covered population. Although the fund holder is usually the state, some forms of single-payer use a mixed public-private system.

Single-payer health insurance collects all medical fees and then pays for all services, by a single government (or government-related) source. In wealthy nations, that kind of publicly managed insurance is typically extended to all citizens and legal residents. Examples include the United Kingdom's National Health Service, Australia's Medicare, Canada's Medicare, and Taiwan's National Health Insurance.

The standard usage of the term "single-payer healthcare" refers to health insurance, as opposed to healthcare delivery, operating as a public service and offered to citizens and legal residents towards providing nearly universal or universal healthcare. The fund can be managed by the government directly or as a publicly owned and regulated agency. Some writers describe publicly administered systems as "single-payer plans". Some writers have described any system of healthcare which intends to cover the entire population, such as voucher plans, as "single-payer plans", but that is uncommon.

Many nations worldwide have single-payer health insurance programs. These programs generally provide some form of universal healthcare, which are implemented in a variety of ways. In some cases doctors are employed, and hospitals run by, the government such as in the United Kingdom or Spain. Alternatively the government may purchase healthcare services from outside organizations, such as the approach taken in Canada.

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